Someone sent this analysis of Women’s reservation bill in its present form, wherein seats are reserved for women candidates only by rotation in every election. It does look like a scary scenario, given the fact that as of now, a woman candidate has higher chance of being elected (1 in 12) compared to a man (1 in 15) in Lok Sabha. So although only few women candidates stand for elections right now, the electorate has shown a preference for women candidates overall. It could also be that since only few women candidates are given tickets by political parties, these few …[Continue Reading]

Karan Thapar has succinctly put the problems of Women Reservation Bill (WRB) in its current form, in an article here. First, as a principle, reservations cause offence because they amount to discrimination. India accepts that the scheduled castes and tribes (SC/ST), given their special history, deserve reservations. No such consensus exists for women. Second, on top of 22.5 per cent for SC/ST, 33 per cent for women (although some of it would overlap) would push up total reservations in the Lok Sabha to around 48 per cent. It means non-SC/ST men (78 per cent of the male population) can only …[Continue Reading]